Tomorrow, at dawn, at a time when the countryside is whitening, I will leave. This verse from Victor Hugo particularly suits the bearers of our newspaper. Every day, in fact, it is at dawn that they take the road, the street, the path, to bring “Ouest-France” as close as possible to our readers. The sun is rarely up when they head to the depot where they are employees. Their world still belongs to the night and the fauna has sometimes not yet returned to its homelands. Deer, wild boars, hedgehogs, owls… the bestiary of carriers is wide. And what about these fields still covered in fog, these seas of oil reflecting the full moon… In short, the beautiful, the curious, the unusual are regularly offered to the gaze of the porters, photographers of dawn.
Hence the idea of François Simonnet, from the logistics and distribution department project team: “The porters regularly tell us that their tour sometimes has nice surprises in store and that they sometimes put them in a box. So for the newspaper's 80th anniversary, we came up with the idea of a photo competition, so that they could share with us what we don't see. »
“I like the calm and tranquility of these hours”
A jury composed of holders, depositaries, readers, representatives ofWest France therefore met at the beginning of October to distinguish three of the 130 photos sent by the carriers. Photo quality, originality, message conveyed… for two hours, the debates were lively, joyful and argued. “The porters are not professional photographers and above all capture the moment. But these photos also reveal another facet of their activity and the choice was difficult”admits François Simonnet.
In the end, the three photos we are publishing today stood out from the crowd.
Find the photo gallery of the porters by clicking here
The first photo, signed Serge Desbois, shows this meeting in a facetious mailbox. “There was already a duck in the mailbox and I brought mine: it inspired me”smiles Serge, porter from Pontchâteau.
The second is this sunrise (in the main illustration of this article) on a country road still foggy like those traveled every day by the 4800 porters. “It was at the end of the tourremembers Jeanine Perrot. I like the calm, the tranquility of these hours. This is what I wanted to show. »
Finally on the third step of the podium, this deer below captured in the moment by Dimitri Le Rouzic near Pontivy.
Beyond the three images that climb the podium, twelve will find their place in the 2026 calendar that the bearers will offer to our subscribers in a year.
A competition podium that sums it up well “these suspended times” whose bearers are privileged witnesses.
Do you want to become carriers? You can apply online at https://www.ouestfrance-emploi.com/actualite-emploi/livreur-de-journaux or call 02 900 800 34.
